The municipality of Tweed is making plans to increase its ability to have aggregate available for use on its roadways.
The idea is to avoid having to buy the aggregate as the municipality is now doing.
CAO Gloria Raybone tells Quinte News, “We had to update the official plan amendment and then we had to update our own zoning by-law to accommodate for an aggregate pit to be there. These were the final steps from our understanding in regards to getting the final licence to be able to remove aggregate from that pit.”
They had started applying for a licence application because there is a large amount of aggregate on the land that could be used for road projects and construction work.
“Our plan is, it would be operating for 10 or about 20 years and then it would be rezoned back after work to correct the land to an appropriate landscape.”
The municipality has had to purchase aggregate from privately-owned pits that has cost between $800,000 and $1 million over the past 20 years, according to the CAO.
Raybone says, “We’re only purchasing right now. The cost savings that we could get for creating our own aggregate pit. The licensing, paying of it, for the rental of the land, for the parts that are not owned by the municipality itself. Once that is all said and done we would be saving quite a bit of money over the years from not having to purchase that amount of aggregate.”
Raybone adds there should be fewer transportation costs.
“There should be fewer transportation costs. The cost of us renting a grinder for a couple of weeks a year to grind it all up and then pulling it out of there. As well as the rental of the land. And payment of what we do remove.”
The plan still needs final approval from the province.
